ExGen

Results Of Metallurgical Testing At Empire Mine, Idaho & Drilling Update At Navarre Creek

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 12, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ExGen Resources Inc. (TSX.V: EXG; OTC: BXXRF) (“ExGen”, the “Company”) is pleased to provide an update in respect of Phoenix Copper Ltd.’s (“Phoenix”) exploration and development activities at the Empire Mine Project in Custer County, Idaho, USA, further to Phoenix’s news release of September 4, 2023. ExGen owns 20% and Phoenix owns 80% of Konnex Resources, Inc. (“Konnex”), which holds the leases and claims to the Empire Mine Project, which includes all of the Navarre Creek claim block. ExGen further owns 1,330,000 common shares of Phoenix.

Jason Riley, CEO of ExGen, commented: “ExGen is pleased with the testing results that have been announced and looks forward to continued progress on the Empire Pit. We also look forward to assay results from Navarre Creek where Phoenix is conducting a maiden drill program. As well, ExGen is looking forward to receipt of assays from its DOK project in British Columbia, which is currently under option to and being drilled by Mountain Boy Minerals Ltd.”

Empire

Phoenix announced that test work completed by Resource Development Inc/Forte Dynamics of Wheat Ridge, Colorado (‘Forte’), on open pit oxide material, has further demonstrated the robust copper, gold, and silver recoveries possible at Empire using non-cyanide leaching technologies. Phoenix said: “Forte has completed test work consisting of crushing, grinding, flotation, and both sulphuric acid and ammonium thiosulfate (‘ATS’) leaching on drill core composites collected from the 2022 Empire Mine metallurgical core drilling program. While testing the use of ATS as a prospective sole reagent on material representative of the Empire Mine deposit, Forte also tested and developed flow sheets for flotation alone, as well as the hybrid processes of flotation followed by sulphuric acid leaching and flotation followed by ATS leaching to recover gold, silver, and copper.

The results of the test work to date have identified two potential processes which merit further optimization, namely flotation plus ATS and flotation plus sulphuric acid leach. Both of the proposed leach circuits would be confined in agitated tanks. The metal recoveries and calculated gross metal value for each flowsheet are shown in Table 1.

Forte will now optimize both these processes and apply operating and capital costs to the optimizations.

Deepak Molhatra, Metallurgical Engineer, Forte Dynamics, is quoted as saying: “The data we have collected from the metallurgical test work completed on the Empire Mine project thus far is very encouraging. All test work completed to this point has been performed in what is referred to as ‘open cycle’. In the coming months, we will continue working to optimize the results using ‘locked cycle’ testing. Locked cycle testing will more closely simulate an active mine environment in which there is a continuous and stable process flow. It is not uncommon to see recovery improvements resulting from locked cycle testing.”